Many individuals, especially college students, have a need for shelving to store books and other articles, and have frequent occasion to move a shelving unit from one location to another. For such individuals, a simple and inexpensive, but structurally sound, shelving unit that can be readily assembled and taken down is highly desirable.
Shelving units composed of interlocking slotted panels can achieve some of these objectives, and in some cases can be assembled without the need for screws or other fasteners. Examples of such shelving units are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,812,977, 4,023,681, 4,153,311, 4,562,776, 6,532,878, 6,615,999, 6,845,871, and 7,114,300, in United States Patent Application Publication 2008/0308508, and in Australian Published Patent Application AU 199870109. In the shelving units described in these patents and publications, rigid panels having slots extending approximately half way across their widths are assembled by positioning adjacent panels in edge-to edge relationship with their faces respectively in mutually perpendicular planes and with slots in the adjacent panels in confronting relationship. Then, by sliding the panels together, the panels are interlocked with one another.
In some of these shelving units, for example the shelving units described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,114,300, the panels are disposed in an array in which some panels are vertical and others are horizontal. In other shelving units, for example the shelving units described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,812,977 and 4,023,681, and in U.S. Patent Publication 2008/0308508, the panels are disposed obliquely, at angles of 45° relative to the horizontal. Australian Published Patent Application AU199870109 describes a shelving system composed of a combination of vertical, horizontal, and oblique panels.
The shelving units composed of vertical and horizontal panels can be relatively simple and at the same time esthetically pleasing. However, the shelving units having oblique panels are generally more complex. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,977, panels are hinged together at their ends, and form concave rectangular corners where the ends meet. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,681, specially formed strips attached to the inner walls of a rectangular box are used to receive the ends of oblique panels. In U.S. Patent Publication 2008/0308508, dovetail grooves in a base are provided to receive the ends of oblique panels where the panels meet one another. In Australian Published Patent Application AU 199870109, pairs of short slotted panels are interlocked to form x-shaped structures which fit into spaces in a rectangular array formed by interlocking longer slotted panels. The ends of the short panels are hidden in the corners of the spaces of the rectangular array.